


the memory lingers

by Amber_Flicker



Series: Hartmon Week - 2017 [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Hartmon Week 2017, Loss, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Season/Series 03, the usual angst about messed up timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 05:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13093383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amber_Flicker/pseuds/Amber_Flicker
Summary: Old timelines and things lost to them.Hartmon Week 2017 - Day 5 - Friends to Lovers





	the memory lingers

It takes him a long time to start wondering about it. Which isn't his fault, okay? He's had so much to think about, so much to _deal with,_ and it doesn't matter at all compared to Dante and the grief he's gone ( _going_ ) through, the whole flashpoint disaster. He isn't upset about not thinking about it sooner, and maybe he never would have, if not for the fact that he vibed on an old timeline.

_He runs into Hartley unexpectedly. It was the same day they'd taken down the time wraith, and he should've been still at dinner with his parents. It's not too unusual, he does come around the lab sometimes when whatever he's working on needs equipment that he doesn't have... wherever he lives, but he seems even more closed off than usual. Cisco almost walks by and ignores him, as you do with rivals, but the question kept burning at the back of his mind. He'd regret it for the rest of the night if he didn't stop now. So he lingers at the door instead._

_"It didn't go well?"_

_Hartley doesn't move. "Clearly."_

_So he's willing to talk, then. He didn't snap at Cisco to leave yet. He doesn't ever hesitate to do that, even though he's less of a jerk now. Apologizing for previous cruelty didn't make him a completely different person. He takes at as acceptance to enter, and sits in the only other chair. "They weren't worth your time anyway."_

_"We didn't even get to _ordering_ before she-" He laughs bitterly, shakes his head. "I don't know what I expected from them."_

_Cisco can understand that feeling. His parents hadn't ever gone to such lengths, mor elike they ignored him, but... "So you didn't get any dinner."_

_"Are you offering?" Hartley's eyes are piercing, like he's trying to figure out why Cisco would_ ever _want to do such a thing._

_"If you want."_

And they'd had dinner, not anything special at some fancy place like Hartley'd just been at with his parents. It was the first of many, and while they couldn't have been called dates at first, they grew to be more intimate with time. He only had vague flashes of where that had led, but Cisco knew he'd been _happy._

He recalls a timeline even further back, where Hartley hadn't joined their side. That was a hell of a lot closer to the current one than the other was. He had never decided to work with them occasionally. He had never decided to stop trying to kill not-wells and gotten let out of the Pipeline. He _had_ grudgingly helped take out the time wraith, but they still weren't on good terms- it was a necessary sacrifice, working with the enemy. At least there hadn't been a betrayal at the end of the night. That's all they could hope for from any ally, at this point. So many people had betrayed them.

Whatever they'd tentatively started to build up, it didn't exist anymore. It never had, outside of broken fragments of one of too many shattered timelines.

Cisco doesn't ever bring up this particular change. It's too personal, something Barry didn't need to know he'd destroyed. He'd find out about the difference, anyway, next time he fought the Rogues. Cisco will pretend he doesn't remember that piece of the old timeline. Maybe it's because he doesn't think he can handle talking about just one more thing he's lost. Maybe he's sick of the pitying looks and wants something to quietly mourn on his own.

 

Could have been, should have been. It didn't matter. 

 

He should know by now that he doesn't get happiness.

**Author's Note:**

> This has actually been in my drafts since April. I wrote it back during s3 when we all wondered if Flashpoint had changed things regarding Hartley. Which we still don't have an answer to :/
> 
> I thought it fit the prompt well enough- they did go from friends to lovers, just not in the current timeline (could've worked for day 1, but I had a fic for that already).
> 
> cliches-and-coffee on tumblr.


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